EA boss: Less sequels, more new titles

EA CEO John Riccitiello admits that the publisher needs to reduce reliance on …

During an earnings call last week, CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello reiterated the publisher's goal of increasing market share by creating more original games and toning down unnecessary sequels and EA's dependence on licensed properties. Despite being the world's largest game publisher, EA has actually been losing market share recently, and the company has often been criticized for its reliance on annual sports titles such as Madden.

Speaking about the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, Riccitiello said that EA plans to launch over ten new titles, including Spore, Battlefield Bad Company, Dragon H, and Saboteur. In regards to sequels, he admitted that what EA needs to do is to give "a significant reason for the consumer to come back and buy them again," which hopefully means better-quality sequels delivered less often. Riccitiello also noted that a recent publishing deal with Hasbro and the purchase of both BioWare and Pandemic studios will be two of the major factors in EA's future success.

EA is also hoping to increase its market share by increasing its support for certain platforms. Nintendo will see over 20 games hit the Wii while the DS gets 15. In terms of mobile gaming, the company will release eight games including Tetris 3D and Command & Conquer. EA is also looking to grab a significant chunk of the burgeoning online games market with its recently announced free-to-play Battlefield Heroes and the upcoming Warhammer Online (currently in beta).

While EA's forays into new gaming markets are interesting, the modest number of new intellectual properties listed by Riccitiello is a bit disconcerting. The majority of the games he presented were in fact either a sequel (Battlefield Bad Company, Mercenaries 2, etc.) or tied to a pre-existing franchise (Sim Animals, Warhammer Online, Battlefield Heroes, etc.). Even Spore has the Will Wright lineage behind it. Add this to the fact that interesting new IP like Army of Two has been put on the back burner and it's hard to know whether EA is serious about its desire to change.